segunda-feira, 22 de outubro de 2007

Three weeks had gone since I came to Avaldsnes, in Karmøy. Now I can say that, actually, I live here. My mind has understood that it is a fact and reality in my life. During the first days, we were concerned about knowing people, places, activities, how things work in the community... We were collecting our first impressions here.

After a while, some questions rose inside of my mind and I started to ask God about His plan to my life during this time. I asked: "Why am I here? What can I do here, Lord?". Of course, when you are abroad, trying a transcultural experience these are natural questions. But when we face them, it is not too easy or too simple to give or to find the answers.

I would like to tell the youth people and also other people about Jesus, about the word of the Lord, but I am limited by the language - in a way, because I can not speak Norwegian. I can remember that before I left Brazil, our leader gave to us the word from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 and, now, it is exactly what I live:

"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power".

I am coming in a new country and culture, I don't have eloquence, superior wisdom in Norwegian. But I am sure that Jesus' work at the cross is the reason that brought me to Norway in this year. Sometimes, I feel myself weak, I am afraid of what is going to happen or what is not going to happen... And when I am like this, the best place to be still and find rest is in God's arms. During prayer times, I pour out my heart before Him and He comes and heal me, gives me strength, He increases my faith through His word and presence. So, I am able to look at all this situation and say: "Ok, Lord. I trust in You and I know that You have plans to accomplish in me and through me". Surely, I can say that God has done great things in my life... There's nothing more precious than our relationship with Him! And we learn a lot in His presence, walking day after day with Jesus, through the communion with the Holy Spirit.

I would like to contribute more, but I can understand that it is time to learn now. In fact, I am learning and it is a blessing from the Lord to my life too. It so good to start understanding a new language, a new people, a new culture, a new way of living.

During our days at Hald, a teacher gave us the following question: "How can we make the 'Good News' new again?". How can we make the Gospel something new in Norway? It has concerned me. As I said in the title of this post, I asked the Lord about "What can I do here?". And He answered me in a simple way through His word: "Jesus is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world". We must live to declare it! The humankind always needs to know that Jesus died to set us free from our sins. He is the way, the truth and the live!

I would like to finish this post sharing something with you:

The key to the missionary message

"And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1John 2.2).

The key to the missionary message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus. Take any phase of Christ's work - the healing phase, the saving and the sanctifying phase; there is nothing limitless about those. "The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!" - that is limitless. The missionary message is the limitless significance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for ours sins, and a missionary is one who is soaked in that revelation.

The key to the missionary message is the remissionary aspect of Christ's life, not His kindness and His goodness, and His revealing of the Fatherhood of God; the great limitless significance is that He is the propitiation for our sins. The missionary message is not a patriotic, it is irrespective of nations and of individuals, it is for the whole world. When the Holy Ghost comes in He does not consider my predilections, He brings me into union with the Lord Jesus.

A missionary is one who is wedded to the charter of his Lord and Master, he has not to proclaim his own point of view, but to proclaim the Lamb of God. It is easier to belong to a coterie which tells what Jesus has done for me, easier to become a devotee to Divine healing, or to special kind of sanctification, or to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Paul did not say - "Woe is unto me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me", but - "Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel". This is the Gospel - "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!".

Last week, I went to Preikestolen, a nice and amazing place in Norway. Me and some students from Karmøy Folkhøgskole got-together to this place and, in the midst of this group, I met Alanna - a brazilian girl who lives in Karmøy and studies at that school.

1 The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.3 Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.4 His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles.5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.7 All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols— worship him, all you gods!8 Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments, O LORD.9 For you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.10 Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.11 Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.12 Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.